Mercedes Andrew Shovlin: “We came here to win, so it’s fantastic to have achieved that objective”

Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport’sAndrew Shovlin says it is “immensely satisfying” to defend both titles after a successful 2018 campaign.

Lewis Hamilton finished the season on a high for the team by winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Shovlin feels this has been one of the toughest years for the team with the challenge of Scuderia Ferrari and was proud to have held them off.

“A great result for the team. We came here to win, so it’s fantastic to have achieved that objective.

“It’s been our toughest year for a long time, Ferrari pushed us hard in both championships and we’ve been running at 100% on both the chassis and engine sides almost since the word go, so it’s a relief to get to the end and immensely satisfying that we’ve managed to hang onto both championships for another year.

“It was another great race from Lewis, he’s not backed off one bit since winning the championship in Mexico and has worked as hard to win this race as every other race so well done on another deserved result.”

Valtteri Bottas has had a tough 2018 failing to win a race and struggled at the Yas Marina Circuit, coming home in fifth and Shovlin feels the Finn has suffered a lot of bad luck this year and will be looking forward to 2019.

“Valtteri had an issue during the race when he locked up at turn 5 and then lost positions.

“We’ll have to a look into that to understand it as his race was all going to plan until that point and he was managing everything well.

“I’m sure Valtteri is looking forward to 2019, this year started well for him but he’s had some cruel luck since Baku.

“He’s been such an important part of the team through this year and we’ll work hard over the next few months to make sure we can deliver him a reliable and fast car next year.”

The end of the season always sees a couple of departures and Mercedes see Tony Ross depart their Formula 1 programme and Shovlin was quick to praise Ross for all the work he has done in his time.

“I’d also like to thank Tony Ross for all his hard work over the last eight years.

“Tony will play a big part in our Formula E programme next year.

“He has contributed so much to the past five constructors championship, and Nico’s driver’s championship, so we will all be sad to see him go but happy we’ve had the chance to enjoy so much success together.”